Online Marketing for Real Estate Industry – Strategic Tips to Multiply Business Leads

According to realtor.org, 31% home buyers belong to Generation Y which means born between 1980 & 1995, at ease with internet usage. This single fact is making online marketing fascinating for realtors & real estate companies all over the world.

Online ads and social media promotion are becoming favorite business generators for realtors. If you still think internet marketing is not that important for real estate firms, then, here are some more facts;

Big real estate agencies realize the business advantages of online marketing, and thus are allocating funds for it. But small & medium agencies often have a hard time figuring out how to market real estate service online for best results.

For such aspiring property firms, FATbit brings expert tips that helped us improve conversion rate for our clients by at least 31%. Read on to learn how to create online marketing strategy for you real estate agency and manage social media communications effectively.

We have categorized the post in three sections for the sake of simplicity;

• Things to do before creating online marketing strategy
• Best online marketing platforms
• Content development tips

So, let’s start from the start!

Things to do before creating online marketing strategy

To create an effective real estate internet marketing strategy, you first need to take care of some basic points. Taking care of following points will not only maximize marketing returns but also drastically improve your online prospects;

Get a professional website: The first step towards internet marketing is a professional website that can be consulted by leads for additional business information. The basic rules don’t change for real estate industry. Get a professional website that clearly states your, real estate experience, area of operation and expertise. Get an idea about website design cost.

Undertake website upgrades: If you already have a real estate site, then, make sure it is ready to entertain inflow of traffic. Update “About” section and make sure all the business details are correct. Add correct business address and contact details so that your business location is automatically integrated with Google map.

Build Futuristic Mobile Apps: With an increasing number of smartphone users across the world, the importance of mobile applications in the real estate industry has skyrocketed. By adding a competitive edge to your real estate business, an interactive mobile app can help you engage and retain your customer interest effortlessly.

Create business profiles: People love to search local service providers on business listing sites like Yelp and Yellowpages. So, your real estate agency needs to be on all popular local business listing sites before starting online marketing. While at it, create a Facebook business page as well to target social media traffic.

Pro Tip: Recommended size for Facebook cover image is 851 x 315 pixels, Google+ cover photo should be 1080 x 608 pixels and Twitter: 1500 x 500 pixels.

Determine online marketing budget: While various online marketing activities are free, some require financial investment. PPC ads, retargeting, and SEO require monetary investment. So, think how much you want to spend in the digital marketing of your real estate firm. Consulting online marketing service provider about cost is a good idea.
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While above tips will help you creating an effective online real estate marketing strategy, you still need to think about the social media platforms best suited to your needs.

Best online marketing platforms

The list of online marketing platforms is quite long but only a handful dominates the psyche of web users. For marketing your real estate business online, you need to focus only on such sites. Below are the most critical online marketing platforms along with some ideas about using them:

Facebook: Build a SEO optimized Facebook business page for your real estate agency. Use ad manager to run effective promotional campaigns. Share images, blog posts, promotional videos, company milestones, and special events to reach wider audience.

Twitter: Use the 140-character message publishing service to connect with property buyers, industry influencers, and other home service providers. Use company specific background for profile, high resolution hero image, and an attractive profile image. Twitter also started a new highly qualified lead generation toll called Twitter Cards. Realtors can use these cards to capture leads.

Google+: This social network is extremely useful for business communication & lead generation. Being a Google product, it quickly attains ranking if optimized correctly. Google+ is also a great place to participate in community discussions. Don’t forget to create a separate company profile with quality images & relevant information.

Pinterest: The visual discovery tool helps create interest focused boards. Use Pinterest to create distinctive boards for properties on sale, rent, and inspiration. Here are some more board ideas for Pinterest marketing:

• Neighborhood amenities
• Historical architecture
• Home décor
• Local properties

Quora: The question answering site has appeared as a prominent online destination to connect with experts in a particular field. Be active on Quora and answer questions to help property buyers and investors. Because relevant questions also appear on search results, the advantage could be huge.
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YouTube and Vine: Reports suggested that real estate marketers are using camera drones to capture full view of properties to provide property searchers with exact details. Such videos can be shared on YouTube & Vimeo. Videos can also be created with property images to give a property overview to interested parties. Create an official YouTube channel to share quality short videos (Average time 2-3 minutes).

Google Glass: Wearable devices like Google Glass are the buzz of real estate industry. It allows you to provide virtual tours of properties to buyers. Glass provides two-way communication so that buyers can ask the agent to elaborate on certain features or ask questions. However, it is an expensive investment and required technical knowhow.

Blogs: People search for real estate information, investment tips and ideas online. Blogging in best way to connect with such potential buyers by sharing your knowledge. You can start an official blog on your real estate website itself or create an independent one. Share informative posts without real estate jargon to build a readership and generate genuine enquires. Get more content marketing tips.

Above social marketing platforms have the potential to attract property buyers but you need to share the right content to make that happen. Below points will help you plan & create posts that will maximize chances of lead generation.

Content development tips for real estate industry

Working in the digital marketing space for almost a decade has given FATbit critical insights in planning, developing and publishing online marketing material. Our team of online marketing experts regularly deploy following points to plan content for real estate & various other industries:

Informative posts: Share informative blog posts and helpful tips to help home buyers and sellers in making better decisions. Use your own experience to share real estate tips and tricks with your audience. Use social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to share posts and run value generating campaigns.

Follow 80-20 rule: In the field of internet marketing, follow the golden rule of 80-20 while undertaking promotion. 80% of the total content being shared must provide some information or help building a relationship with the customers. The remaining 20% can be related to direct product promotion and sales pitch.

Visual content: Online marketing works best with visual content. Use top quality images that people would like to share. Invest in infographics, GIFs, collages, and videos to generate added benefits. In short, make visual content an intrinsic part of your real estate digital marketing strategy.

Also Read: What Makes Visual Content So Critical in a Digital Marketing Campaign?

Pro tip: Custom images create better brand connection and have higher brand recall.

Share real estate updates: Give property searchers a reason to stay connected with you via social profiles. Share posts about new real estate projects, market performance, statistics, and valuation tools that can help in making better real estate decision. Such ideas can work magic for your real estate internet marketing.

Run Contests: Engagement is a crucial factor of digital marketing. Make your social followers engage in direct interactions by running contests and QA sessions. Established real estate brands usually hire online marketers to manage such activities on their social profiles.
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Diversify content: Do not focus on one kind of content format. Plan, create and share content in form of a blogs, images, videos, presentations, webinars, documents and any other format that you think could help connect with your audience. Just lengthy blog posts or plain images will disappoint followers.

Third party sharing: It is always suggested to share fresh content. This reflects your understanding of your industry and helps build confidence in your offerings. However, sharing content from other users, pages, and other external websites also helps as it connects your profiles with other reputed names of the industry.

Use hashtags & important search phrases: Hashtags are a great way to target particular groups and become part of bigger conversations. Use combination of trending, branded, location specific and basic hashtags to get better response. While hashtags work effectively on Twitter, Facebook & Tumblr, use relevant search phrases in blog posts to make them appear in search results.

Recommended Reading: How to Use Hashtags in Your Social Media Marketing

Time your posts: Timing is very crucial to get initial likes and shares. Track high traffic time range for individual platforms through inbuilt or third party apps. Also analyze geographical regions that you want to target for sales and track average high traffic time for them. Post your well planned content in this time duration.

Our marketing team regularly writes about real estate industry to help realtors generate more online benefits. Below are links to some of our most popular posts;

• Content marketing for real estate industry
• How realtors can fight negative online reviews

Above listed online real estate marketing tools and techniques are put into practice on daily basis by our marketing experts. However, best results are generated when they are made part of a detailed online marketing plan for real estate.

Make sure your chosen online marketing agency includes above listed points in its recommended strategy.
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